Benue: Herdsmen slaughter cop, kill two civil defence men

The Benue State Police command has said that the body of one of the officers it declared missing after an attack by Fulani herdsmen on Saturday night at the Azege-Ayilamo community in the Logo Local Government Area of the state had been found.

In a statement by the command spokesman, ASP, Moses Yamu, made available to our correspondent in Makurdi on Monday, the command lamented the death of one of the missing policemen.

Yamu stated, “He was found brutally slaughtered, with both eyes and ears as well as nose removed. We pray that God Almighty grants him eternal rest.”

The command said that it remained committed to its statutory and daunting obligation of ensuring security of lives and property in the state.

The command had stated on Saturday that suspected herdsmen had ambushed a patrol team at Azege Ayilamo in the Logo council area with four of its men missing.

Two of the missing policemen were said to have been rescued on Sunday.

In a related development, suspected Fulani herdsmen, on Monday, shot and killed two officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, who were on special operations at the Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.

The incident, according to a security source, occurred at Awamye near Kasseyo village in the local government area.

The victims were said to have been ambushed by suspected Fulani herdsmen at a stream in Awanye.

The source said, “Security men within that community have been going to the stream to bath and what they used to do is while some are taking their bath others will be on alert keeping watch.

“So, the victims were bathing while two other colleagues were keeping vigil when suddenly suspected herdsmen who had laid an ambush attacked them and killed the two, while others escaped.”

When contacted, the state command PRO, Peter Adakole, confirmed the incident.

He added that the command had dispatched a team to the area to get accurate information about what led to the death of the men.

The PRO said, “I can confirm to you that we lost two men but we do not have details of what happened, the command had dispatched a team to the place, the moment the team comes back I will get back to you.”

He did not get back to our correspondent as of the time of filling this report. Punch